Do I offend you?

There has been a great deal of controversy swirling around the recent ad campaign here in Georgia regarding the Childhood Obesity billboards and video! I see the posters and have posted some of the commercials currently airing on local television here. The larger point is addressing the problem, yes it is in your face, but is there any nice way to address this?

Answers (7)

I'm more offended by the ads coming from MacDonalds,Burger King, 7/11, Taco Bell, Wendys etc than this billboard.

I think we are in a real obesity crisis, particularily among children: My opinion is that the food industry is marketing and packaging "fake food?", and that processed foods are rampant.
Parents are working and don't want to bother with preparing "real food", so they take the quick fix

Kurt, thanks for such a thought-provoking question. At first glance, it is too stark for me. I believe there might be repercussions as a consequence of the advertisement. However, childhood obesity is a national crisis and it should not be sugarcoated. Not an easy situation.

-----I disagree with the above statement. People have mirrors and common sense. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that slew of health risks associated with being overweight and obese.

According to Rodney Lyn of Georgia State University's Institute of Public Health, "This campaign is more negative than positive."

----I agree with this. You are really not helping with this AD.

Therefore, my opinion on the topic is stop wasting time and money putting together something to demonstrate the problem. The problem is OBVIOUS. True time and money should be invested in the solutions. I hope to work on that in the future!

In our society, as they say in marketing and publicity "even negative attention is better than no attention at all!" Although I'm NOT a proponent of negative ads, negative reinforcement, or negative motivation, I have to say that if this series of ads serves to shine more attention and light on the subject of childhood obesity, then it may have served its purpose. After all, the purpose of advertising is to bring a product, subject or issue to light, to the public's view etc. This series of ads seems to already be accomplishing this purpose!

Purchasing is usually an emotional response. As trainers, we sell what we think people want. We wouldn't sell bodybuilding advice to the elderly, the same way we wouldn't sell longevity workouts to the obese.

Its a problem, but the best way to stop it is to prevent it- which means hopping on the problem before the children become obese adults.

Hard? Yes. Rough? Yes. Mean? Yea, but the chronic diseases that come along with obesity wont be nice either.

I think there should be a similar ad campaing as the one they did against tabaco. Obesity kills many people and it creates negative environment for everyone. It doesn't matter if it impacts us directly or nor, this epidemic it's going out of control and that's why there has to be a campaign that tells the truth, even if it hurts. So far, being politicaly correct hasn't achieve it's goal, instead it has made it worst.